In the summer of 1864, with Sherman temporarily checked outside Atlanta and Grant bogged down in the siege of Petersburg, the Democratic Party smelled victory in the fall elections. Lincoln himself concluded, “It seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be re-elected.”

The Democrats were badly divided, however. “Peace” Democrats insisted on an armistice, while “war” Democrats supported the conflict but opposed Republican means of fighting it. The party tried to paper over the chasm by nominating a war candidate, General George McClellan, but adopting a peace platform that demanded that “immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities.” Republicans denounced the peace plank as a cut-and-run plan that “virtually proposed to surrender the country to the rebels in arms against us.”

The capture of Atlanta in September turned the political tide in favor of the Republicans. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote, but his electoral margin was a whopping 212 to McClellan’s 21. Lincoln’s party won a resounding victory, one that gave him a mandate to continue the war until slavery and the Confederacy were dead.